A Ribbon of Life Through the Concrete of Houston

Removing Fallen Trees More Damaging Long Term

Post-Harvey debris removal along Buffalo Bayou almost complete

Since last fall, HCFCD has cleared large downed trees along nearly 25 miles of the bayou from Highway 6 to Interstate 45, according to Facilities Maintenance Department Manager John Watson. However, an official from nonprofit Save Buffalo Bayou said the work will ultimately lead to more flooding and erosion of the bayou downstream.

Watson said while the flood control district typically allows trees to remain where they fall, contractors were hired following the hurricane to go in to remove the many downed trees using barges and swamp buggies, which are like large excavators on pontoons, in order to keep the flow of the waterway moving.

“Our normal operation involves just cutting and leaving trees in place, but with an event the size of Harvey and the damage that was done from Harvey, we really couldn’t just leave the downed trees there. We had to go and physically get into the channel and remove them,” Watson said.

Save Buffalo Bayou Executive Director Susan Chadwick said the nonprofit organization was started in 2014 “to oppose a plan by HCFCD to raze the forest, dredge and reroute over a mile of one of the last forested, publicly accessible stretches of Buffalo Bayou flowing past Memorial Park through the middle of the city.”

Chadwick said Save Buffalo Bayou educates community members and leaders about how natural and manmade drainage systems work and what is ineffective to prevent flooding.

She said large debris removal projects and other efforts to speed up water flow along Buffalo Bayou are not effective long term.

“The focus on speeding up the flow leads to a cascade of poor decisions, policies and practice: removing all the woody debris in the stream, for instance, dredging, straightening, shortening and enlarging channels,” Chadwick said. “These extremely costly methods are unsustainable.”

She said because Buffalo Bayou is a natural body of water, it will always evolve and correct itself when repairs or changes are made.

“A river is a dynamic living system. It adjusts itself to the width and depth necessary to become stable. An artificially deepened stream, for instance, will fill itself with silt and sediment again. The banks of an artificially widened stream will collapse. Streams flow the way they do because of the underlying geology. Rivers have a memory. They will do what they want and need to do,” Chadwick said.

A trackhoe on a barge stuck in the sandy channel bottom of Buffalo Bayou at that bend below the high bank in Memorial Park. Maintenance contractor with flood control was removing fallen trees from the banks and channel. Photo by SC May 19, 2018